


Calm Your Thirst With My Tears

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [25]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Reverie, past meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:39:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: When Vivi boards the ship of the strawhats, she thinks she recognizes their chef.





	Calm Your Thirst With My Tears

They were only a day away from Alabasta, when Vivi suddenly decided to pay Sanji a visit in the kitchen of the Going Merry. She took a place by the table and when she didn't say anything, Sanji did.

"Vivi-chan~" Sanji sang and floated to her side, "What can I do for you, my princess~"

She smiled lovingly at him, but the proceeded to look down to her folded hands on the table.

"I..." she started and Sanji suspected that she was having a hard time finding the right words, which made him wonder. What was she trying to say?

"I could be wrong," she said after some time, "Actually I think I'm wrong, but I need to know..." She took a deep breath, "Have we met before?"

For a brief moment Sanji wondered why Vivi would think such a thing, because surely they would never have met before. But that was only for a brief moment, because suddenly Sanji remembered and he knew the answer to that question was ' _yes'._ But he couldn't... not yet...

"I don't think I would have forgotten someone as beautiful as you, my lady~" Sanji said lovingly, avoiding the question.

"Well... I suppose I must be thinking of someone else then. Sorry to have bothered you about it." She left the kitchen and Sanji was once again alone with his thoughts.

He remembered very well the first time they had met. Actually, you couldn't really call it a meeting. It was more like a passing of sorts. It had been around ten years ago, when the reverie had been held and for the first time, Sanji had been allowed to attend with his older siblings and parents. Only his little brother had stayed at home, while the rest of them had travelled to the Holy Land. There wasn't really much for the children to do, when the adults were having their meeting and young Sanji had found it hard to understand why he had been forced to come along. It was an overall boring place, he wasn't allowed to do anything and unlike his own home, he couldn't just sneak down to the kitchens, because 1) He had to behave and 2) He didn't actually know where the kitchen was. He eventually had found himself walking around in a small garden, when he started to hear voices. He hid behind a pillar, because he honestly didn't want to socialize with anyone. They were all so high up their horses and Sanji found it almost disgusting how they talked to people of lesser status. So Sanji silently observed the people who were being just a little bit too loud. They were all children. There were seven of them and most of them seemed to be from different countries, though some could also be related. It didn't really matter, what caught Sanji's eye was the young blue-haired girl, who was standing surrounded by the other six. It wasn't hard to see that they were bullying her.

Sanji, having learned good manners from the moment he could walk and talk, was about to step in and help out the girl, but he stopped himself, when she spoke up. This girl, Sanji found, was roughly three years younger than him, and also three times as strong as him. It was like none of the bullies mattered to her, she just shut everything they said down with pure intellect and confidence. They tried insulting her, and she ignored it. They tried insulting her father and she proved their accusations wrong. They tried insulting her country and she made them go back on their word. She was fierce and unafraid. Just Sanji had been told he had to be.

This was when one of the boys pointed out that they were six and she was all alone and suggested starting a fight. Now, Sanji was not the kind of boy who looked down on women, far from, the strongest people in his family were his mother and sister, but Sanji had no knowledge about this girl's fighting capabilities and even if she could fight she was greatly outnumbered. One of the boys then sprinted towards the girl, fist raised high and ready to punch her bloody, when Sanji blocked him and shoved him back to the other children. If Sanji had any skills to be proud of, it would be combat.

"You shouldn't fight," he said coldly, "You may not lead your country, but your influence and name is enough to start a war if anyone should get hurt."

"Is that so?" One of the girls snickered, "Then the same should apply to you. Just wait 'till my father hears about this. He'll send a hoard of raiders to your country."

"I'd like to see him try," Sanji said, "because my family don't rule any country, which means that I can fight all I want, but what would happen if you tried, I wonder. Want to find out?"

This shut the girl up and she looked to the others for help. It seemed that none of them had anything to say and they left without another word. Almost immediately afterwards the meeting had come to a pause and leaders from around the world were slowly filling the garden, taking in some fresh air and stretching their limbs. Sanji imagined that a meeting with this many powerful people would involve a lot of sitting. Either that or there would be war.

Sanji turned around and was about to ask the girl's name, but she had already run off. In the distance he heard his sister call his name and he obeyed her command. Through some research and trespassing, Sanji learned that the girl was the only princess of the country of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi.

It was late. Luffy was sleeping. Everyone was sleeping, except for Sanji and Vivi who were tending to the worn-out crew. The only noise that could be heard was the falling of the rain and sometimes someone would let out some sleepy words.

"We  _have_  met before," Sanji suddenly said and Vivi turned her head to him, questioning.

"Did you just remember something?" She asked quietly as not to wake Luffy, whom she was currently tending to.

"No, I lied before..." he said, wanting to be truthful this time, "I just... I don't particularly like that part of my life."

"What do you mean?" Vivi said concerned and moved closer to him, but still near Luffy in case he should need her.

"We met at the reverie," Sanji simply said, not wanting to elaborate to much on it.

She was silent for a while, but then understood: "Oh." Her eyes lingered sadly at him for a moment or two, but then looked back to Luffy and smiled. "I bet you're happy you joined Luffy's crew then?"

Sanji looked down at his feet, his eyes stinging and watering up. He never let a tear fall and smiled: "Yes," he whispered, "Very."


End file.
